[§103F-402]  Competitive purchase of
services.  (a)  State agencies to which the legislature has appropriated
funds for the purchase of health and human services shall solicit proposals to
provide health and human services by purchase of health and human services
contracts, by publishing a notice requesting the submission of health and human
service proposals.  Notice of the request for proposals shall be given a
reasonable time before the date set forth in the request for submission of
proposals.  The policy board shall adopt rules which specify:



(1)  The form of the notice;



(2)  What constitutes a reasonable interim between
notice and the proposal submission deadline; and



(3)  How the notice is to be published, including but
not limited to, whether the publication is to be completed in a newspaper of
general circulation, by mail, through a public or private telecommunications
network, or any other method or combination of methods which the board deems
appropriate.



(b)  The request shall state all criteria which
will be used to evaluate proposals, and the relative importance of the proposal
evaluation criteria.



(c)  Any applicant who has a question regarding
a request may submit the question to the head of the purchasing agency, or a
designee, prior to the proposal submission deadline.  The head of the
purchasing agency, or a designee, shall provide a response in the form of a
clarification, or an amendment of the request, that shall be made available to
all those who picked up a request.



(d)  Proposals shall be opened so as to avoid
disclosure of contents to competing applicants during the process of proposal
evaluation.  A register of proposals shall be prepared and available for public
inspection after proposal submission.



(e)  If stated in the request, discussions, as
provided by rule, may be held with applicants for the purpose of clarification
to assure full understanding of, and responsiveness to, the solicitation
requirements.  Applicants shall be accorded fair and equal treatment with
respect to any opportunity for discussion and revision of proposals, and
revisions may be permitted after submissions and prior to award for the purpose
of obtaining best and final offers.  In conducting discussions, there shall be
no disclosure of any information derived from proposals submitted by competing
applicants. [L 1997, c 190, pt of §2]